Monona committee asks staff to explore YouTube chaptering and timestamping for city meetings

The City of Monona Community Media Committee voted Jan. 8 to ask city staff to explore ways to make recorded meetings easier for residents to navigate on YouTube, including chaptering and timestamping linked to the agenda.

The committee’s motion, introduced by Alex and amended to emphasize time-stamping, directs staff on Will’s team to research feasible options and report findings between meetings. The amendment narrowed the effort to navigation and timestamping rather than automated summaries.

Members said the goal is to help residents jump directly to items of interest. “One of the great services that community media provides is for citizens to watch any meeting they care to watch,” the Moderator said, framing the need to reduce friction for viewers. Katie described a current workaround: a manually created newsletter the day after meetings that links agenda items to the time in the YouTube recording where each item begins.

Committee members discussed technical approaches. Several said YouTube supports chapters but that someone must either mark the times while managing the live recording or review the footage afterward to create the chapter timestamps. Will shared sample view counts to show where demand differs: some city council videos had roughly 70–100 views while selected school board videos drew hundreds.

Members also cautioned about overreliance on AI-generated summaries. “If we asked AI to time-stamp things, there’s an accuracy component,” one member said, warning that automated summaries could be misread as authoritative records. The committee agreed the initial scope should prioritize navigation (timestamps/chapters) and preservation of original recordings rather than replacing official records with AI summaries.

The committee voted in favor of the amended motion; members recorded ‘aye’ votes and the motion passed. Staff will investigate options for automated or manual chaptering workflows, evaluate privacy and accuracy risks, and return with recommendations at a future meeting.

The committee did not set a timeline for implementation in the meeting; next procedural steps are for staff to report back when they have cost and feasibility information.